AbstractHistory

'A thriller novel later turned into a screenplay in which the eponymous Mr Denning murders a blackmailer with whom his daughter has fallen in love and, in panic, dumps the body in a lonely rural area.' (The Bibliography of Australasian Judaica 1788-2008, p. 12)

Adaptations

A largely negative review in the London Times offered the following synopsis:

'That brilliant aircraft designer Tom Denning (Mr. Mills) clearly has something on his mind and spends more time pouring out drinks than working at his drawing-board, but the secret and the suspense are kept artfully in being and the audience, like a small child listening to a story, is anxious to know what is going to happen next. And it knows, by the sacred pen of Conan Doyle, it knows! Tom has committed a murder, knocking out his daughter's blackmailing lover (Mr. Herbert Lom) by a neat upper-cut with the result that the man hits his head against the grate and promptly expires. Suspension of belief is a favour asked by, and freely bestowed on, all kinds of murder stories, but the stories, on their side, are expected to put as little strain on credulity as possible; the slow, lengthy flashback which shows Tom disposing of the body is one long strain on credulity which shatters patience and the film into fragments.'

Source:

'New Films in London. Strain on Credulity', The Times, 24 December 1951, p.2.